World Class Solar Tariffs for North

The tariffs are precedent setting in North America not only for the
number of different technologies listed, including offshore wind, but
also for the prices offered.

Solar energy advocates will be particularly pleased. Ontario’s
proposed tariffs, if implemented, will be the highest in North
America. For rooftop solar they will be comparable to those offered
in Germany and France. On the other hand, Ontario’s proposed
tariffs for ground-mounted systems will be less than those in
Germany, a country with a comparable solar resource.

OPA’s press release suggested that the tariff for residential rooftop
solar PV could result in 100,000 solar installations capable of
generating one percent of Ontario’s electricity supply. One percent
of Ontario’s supply is 1.5 TWh or nearly one-third the 2008 solar
generation in Germany, the world’s leader in solar energy.

Similarly, the tariffs for biogas plants will be among the highest, if
not the highest on the continent. Unlike higher tariffs offered by
some utilities in Wisconsin, Ontario’s proposed tariffs are for 20-
year contracts. The tariffs offered in Wisconsin are paid only for
ten years.

The wind tariffs proposed are less robust than expected. The tariffs
for onshore wind are nearly identical to those proposed by the
Ontario Sustainable Energy Association in 2005. Since that time,
the installed cost of wind turbines has increased substantially.

The proposed wind tariffs are comparable to those in France, but
substantially less than those in Germany. And unlike in Germany
and France, the tariffs are not differentiated by resource intensity.
OPA proposes two wind tariffs, one for community wind projects,
another tariff for everything else. OPA does not differentiate the
tariffs further.

In another first in North America, OPA has proposed a specific
tariff for offshore wind. Ontario fronts four of the Great Lakes:
Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Consequently, Ontario has a
huge offshore wind resource.

Currently, there are no wind turbines in any of the Great Lakes,
though there are several proposals for projects in waters off
Ontario.

The tariffs proposed by OPA represent the total payment for
renewable energy. There are no federal or provincial subsidies for
renewable electricity generation in Ontario.

While several US states have rudimentary feed-in tariffs, often with
contracts of limited length, no US state has as comprehensive a
system of feed-in tariffs as that proposed by OPA. Nor does any
state in the US pay as high tariffs as those proposed in Ontario, in
part because of lucrative US federal tax subsidies.!

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